Space Lectures: Scott D. Altman

In 2017, retired United States Navy Captain Scott D. Altman will be joining Space Lectures for his first public appearance in the UK. Commissioned as an Ensign in the US Navy in August 1981, Scooter (as he likes to be called) received his Navy wings of gold in February 1983. Based at NAS Miramar with Squadron VF-51 (The Screaming Eagles), he completed two cruises flying the Grumman F-14A Tomcat. In August 1987, Scooter was selected for the Navy Test Pilot School and graduated with Test Pilot School Class 97 - in June 1990. Deploying in 1992 with squadron VF-31 and the new F-14D Tomcat, he was awarded the Navy Air Medal for his role as a strike leader flying over Southern Iraq. Following his return from this deployment, he was selected in December 1994 for the astronaut program. He has logged over 7000 flight hours in more than 40 types of aircraft

It was while stationed at Mirimar that he flew as Tom Cruise aka “Maverick” in the classic 1986 movie “Top Gun” - his middle finger took a leading role as the Mig 28 was given the “inverted bird” and 9 fly-by’s of the tower at Fallon Airbase Nevada forming part of the “buzzing the tower” scene.

16 years a NASA astronaut Scooter flew 4 shuttle missions for a total of 51 days in space: STS-90 piloting Columbia and its Spacelab payload, STS-106 the final ISS assembly mission in preparation for its first crew, and his final shuttle flights (STS-109 and STS-125) as Commander of the Hubble Space Telescope’s last servicing missions. In 2010, after a distinguished flying career and a list of honours and awards as long as your arm, Scooter retired from NASA and is currently Vice President of Strategic Planning at aerospace company ASRC Federal in Greenbelt, Maryland. Since leaving NASA he has been determined to share his experiences and to inspire others to reach for the stars!

For his first public appearance in the UK there will be an Evening Dinner and Auction held on the 31st of March at the Wentbridge House Hotel and a lecture held at Carleton Community High School on Saturday 1st of April. On both days there will an opportunity to take photos with the astronaut and get his autograph!!

Centre for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine

Centre for Altitude Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (CASE Medicine) is a group of clinicians and scientists with specialist interests and training in the medicine and physiology of extreme environments.